Tuesday, September 16, 2008

How do you fix it when you have 1000 duplicate calendar entries added to your Microsoft Outlook Calendar by a phone set in the wrong timezone??? No idea? Neither do I, so here is a post about how to ensure that you are not reminded of your 8am meeting at 1:45am as well as 7:45am.

CHECK YOUR PHONE AND PC TIMEZONESUnder the clock options, ensure that both your computer and your phone agree what timezone you are in. Otherwise, if your phone notices that there is no entry at 2am (+5GMT) for your 8am (+11GMT) , it will add another meeting in at 2am. Multiply that by 1000 and you have a problem.

LIMIT YOUR FIRST SYNCBefore you connect your phone to the PC Suite, check your sync options. Allow your phone and PC to sync a small range of dates such as two days before, and two days after. That way if something goes wrong with the sync you can undo it without too much fuss.

REMEMBER SYNC CANT BE UNDONEThere are programs that allow you to remove duplicates but its not easy so just dont rush into doing your first synchronisation.

CHECK YOUR SYNC OPTIONSIf you know that your Microsoft Outlook calendar is always more accurate than its phone brother, then make sure that the sync program is told in the options that when there is a conflict between the two, it will go with the Outlook version of events.

TRY ONE WAY FIRSTIf you want to be cautious, how about doing a one way sync first.

Hope these tips help you to keep yourself from sinking while you're syncing. And if anyone has been in this situation... you've made a mess of your calendar with a dodgy sync, please feel free to share how you got out of it. YOu dont need to login, just post as anonymous in the SUGGESTIONS link below.

2 comments:

I switched to using ICS files for my calendar. This is an open standard. I switched from Outlook to Sunbird/Lightning because it uses ICS as a native calendar format. There are many other programs which can use it also.

I then submit the ICS file to my personal Subversion server, which I already use to keep my other files organised. The client diffing tools allow me to check before a commit if I want to actually keep the changes.

The next problem was syncing with my E65. PC Suite is out the window, as it does not sync with Thunderbird. Today I set up my own Funambol server, and used the Funambol plugin for Thunderbird to sync.

Overall the system works well except for two niggles so far:1. newlines in the calendar entry notes become '\n', not sure if this is funambol or the thunderbird plugin.2. tasks are not synced by the plugin yet, they will in future.

You've found it. This is the most comprehensive guide to your Nokia E65. Try the search bar below to find everything on E65 and nearly everything on other Nokia E series.

Since the Nokia E65, I've also created similar pages for the Nokia E63, E72, N8, N9 and then the Galaxy Nexus. You can follow the links on the top of this blog. As you can see, I am interested in marketing and technology for mobiles and am interested in emerging mobile technologies. MyE65 has become the blog authority for Nokia lovers and professionals looking to make the most of the technology in their hand. Contact mye65blog[@]gmail.com if you have something in mind.